by M H Ryan
“Get back,” I said to the girls near me.
Our cover had obviously been blown and hiding behind thin sheets of metal was ludicrous at this point.
The crab took a few more steps onto the shore, and I reached out to the crab itself. It was nearly blank, but I had a hint of it and knew something was guiding this beast. Inside, it felt numb with fear, but on the outside, it raged, as if it was of two different minds. Before I could admire the complexity of the creature, it swung a claw, striking a palm tree near the shore. The sound of it echoed through the forest.
Aubrey hurled a spear at the creature. The spear struck it near the abdomen and bounced off as if the crab as if its shell was made of steel.
“Shit,” Aubrey said.
“Jack! You will die for what you’ve done,” Du’tumey yelled and pointed his spear at me.
As if on command, the crab rushed toward me, and I hadn’t a clue as to how to stop it.
Chapter 30
The massive creature’s claw swung down toward me, and I jumped back. It hit the sand inches in front of me, sending sand flying in all directions. An arrow flew over the crab, straight at its rider, but Du’tumey held up a thick wooden shield. The arrow hit the shield with a dead thump, lodging into it.
Benji fired several more arrows, keeping the beast and its rider distracted at the moment.
“We need to get Carmen,” I said. “I’m pretty sure she’s the one blocking me.”
“How?” Aubrey said, keeping her eye on the crab as Benji shot an arrow in its mouth.
The crab pulled it out and backed away from the attack.
“I can clear a path to her, just like I did to those termite fish,” Sherri said. “Just make sure no one gets near me while I’m doing it.”
“I can handle that,” Emma said, holding her bat.
Du’tumey berated his crab with words I didn’t understand, but it got the thing moving forward, disregarding the arrows striking it. It neared the house, and my heart sank at the thought of that monster destroying what we lovingly built. Plus, Benji and Cass were in there.
That’s when Shaya ran out from the trees and threw a rock at her brother.
“Stop this!” she screamed at him, and the crab stopped, turning toward her.
“Shaya, move out of the way. We have to deal with the people that killed our father.”
“No, this is not honoring our father!”
“Okay, let’s move,” I said, seeing an opportunity as Shaya argued with her brother.
We rushed around a few trees and down to the white sandy beach. Sherri got to the water’s edge and closed her eyes. Du’tumey hadn’t noticed our route but the others in the water did. I sensed four of them swimming toward us while the other four stayed with Carmen.
“They’re coming,” I said just as four heads appeared out of the water, clumped together only thirty feet off the shore.
Two of them leaned back as to throw their spears. I moved to protect Sherri when she yelled out, thrusting her hands forward.
The water burst in front of us in a great column and smashed into the four watchers. Two of them floated in the white froth of the aftermath before sinking below and joining the other two. I reached out to them, confirming they were all dead.
Sherri stared at her hands in shock.
“Holy shit,” Emma said. “That was as awesome as a free dinner.”
I sensed fear in the other four watchers now. An explosion in the water like that would have sent a shock wave through them as well. Too far to hurt them, but it stunned them. They were considering how best to respond as the fear turned quickly into anger.
“Behind us!” Emma yelled.
The giant crab crashed through a section of bushes, pushed a tree half over, and swung down at us with its massive claw.
Emma stood proud as the claw nearly struck her. With the bat in her hands, she swung hard, the muscles on her back and arms flexing as the bat moved toward the claw. Her bat impacted the edge of the claw, one of the spikes on the bat digging deep into the protective shell and tearing a chunk the size of my head off the claw. A clear liquid poured from the wound, and the crab reeled back from the attack, but not fast enough.
Emma swung again, hitting the thing on the other claw as it neared her. The bat slammed into the tip of the claw, breaking off a piece of it. She yelled, swinging rapidly as if she was chopping wood. The crab staggered back from the assault.
“Whoa,” Aubrey said. “We’ve got a badass here.”
“Yeah, we do,” I said. “Aubrey, you help them. Sherri and I will get Carmen.”
“Okay, get Carmen. I always liked her,” Aubrey said, then yelled out a battle cry as she threw her spear.
To my amazement, she struck a section of the things claw that had been weakened from Emma and stuck in it. The crab hit the spear, breaking it off but a piece of wood still held in it. In the distance, I heard Shaya yelling at her brother.
I turned back to Sherri, who was cradling her head in her hands.
“Sherri, they’re guarding Carmen and not moving. Think you can do what you just did again?”
She looked as if she was going to throw up but raised her hands in determination. “I think so,” she struggled to say.
I took her hand in mine and got her to make eye contact with me. “Sherri, we can do this. I’ll be with you the whole time.”
She nodded her head. “This is going to be an incredible rescue, Jack. Something we can tell generations about.”
“I agree, but we have to do the work first, okay?”
“Jack, I love you,” Sherri said and hugged me.
“I love you too,” I said, and wanted to share a lot more with her, but we needed to move.
I pulled her gently at first, getting her moving into the water, and soon, we were waist deep. The guards around Carmen knew we were coming and two spread out while two stayed with her. A smart move, as Sherri’s first attack had been centered among a group of them like a grenade. Spread out and she might only get one or two of them at a time, leaving the others to swoop in.
“They’re surrounding us,” I whispered, but now we were only twenty feet from the raft.
Unfortunately, we were in chest-deep water now, and I felt as if I was an unwelcome visitor in someone else’s house. Every second we spent in the water, they had an advantage over us.
There were two guards under the raft and two more that were swimming to either side of us.
“Sherri,” I whispered. “Can you hit the two at the raft?”
“Yes,” she said, staring at it. “Get behind me and hold onto me. I may pass out from this.”
I slid behind her, wrapping my hands around her waist, and held on. I felt her tense and then she thrust her hands out. A massive thumping sound hit the water first, followed with a column of water rising right next to the raft. The raft lifted up, making Carmen roll to the edge, but she didn’t fall off.
The two watchers under the raft, sunk to the bottom, dead. Sherri slumped in my arms and I leaned her back, keeping her head from going under the water. The other two had been stunned by the attack, but they were recovering quickly and both were making their way toward us.
“Sherri?” I said, and she groaned, flapping her arms in an attempt to swim. “I got you.” I pulled her to the raft. “Hang on to it.”
I placed her hand on the raft, and she gripped the wood, keeping her head above the water. I pulled myself onto the raft and yanked Carmen over to me. Her eyes were open, but she stared blankly at the sky. She twitched, relieving me from the idea that she might already be dead. I wasn’t sure how to stop her from doing what she was doing, but I searched her body and noticed something clutched in her hand.
The two remaining guards were nearly upon us.
I pulled Carmen’s fingers open and spotted the black stone in her hand. Pure evil and the sight of it shocked me. Why was she holding it? I grabbed it and threw it as hard as I could out into the sea. It skipped a few times over the s
urface before sinking below. With it gone, I felt as if a fog had been lifted, and I sucked in a deep breath, reaching out for the two that were only feet away from Sherri.
“Stop,” I said, and they both froze, right next to Sherri.
I was back in the game!
“Jack, I don’t think I can hold on for much longer,” Sherri said, slurring her words.
“I got Carmen, and I’ve stopped them, Sherri,” I said. “Sherri?”
She didn’t respond, and just as I looked over, her grip from the raft slipped and she sank into the water. I grabbed but missed, so I jumped in after my patriotic beauty and found my lover’s hand, then her waist. I pulled her up, lifting her head above the water. She took a breath and tried to wipe the water from her face.
“I got you,” I said, holding her gently while my anger against those that were attacking us grew.
I wanted to kill the two frozen watchers right then and there. These things had come to our island, threatened the lives of my friends and lovers and taken one of ours as a prisoner and used her against us. My blood boiled with a rage that matched Shaya’s crab riding sibling. I had to get back to the fight.
I held Sherri above the water with one arm and pulled the raft with the other, getting both ladies to the shore. Once in shallows, Sherri dragged herself onto the dry sand and I pulled the raft and Carmen laying on it onto the shore next to her.
Yelling drew my attention to the crab fight that had moved to the edge of the forest. An arrow went flying at the crab, and I followed it back to Benji, standing on the roof of the house. She had her bow pulled way back, every muscle in her amazing body flexing with effort. She fired another arrow at the beast and fish-man on its back.
“Are you going to be okay here?” I asked Sherri.
“Yes, I’ll watch Carmen, now go and help them,” she said, barely able to speak.
“I’ll be right back,” I said.
I glanced back at the two in the sea and sent a thought that if they moved or attacked anything, it would be certain death for them and their families. Their sour fear radiated out to me, and I knew they weren’t going to move.
Grabbing a spear, I ran toward the back of the crab.
Another arrow flew from Benji, and I watched as it stuck in Du’tumey’s back. I ran toward him, connecting to him. This was going to end now.
Chapter 31
I gave the strong idea that he shouldn’t move.
Du’tumey froze on the crab, and for a few seconds, I thought his motionless body would stay on the beast, but a few sidesteps by the crab wobbled the rider loose, and he rolled to the right. The brother of Shaya fell off the side of the crab and landed on his back on some ferns. The arrow in his back pushed through and stuck out of his chest. Du’tumey coughed up blood, absently reaching for what had impaled him. I felt for Shaya. I didn’t want it to end like this.
I still had one more threat to deal with and turned my attention to it. I attempted to connect with the crab, but it blocked me, causing a sharp pain in my head. Much like the Anyck, I couldn’t get into the thing’s head. I yelled, running past Du’tumey, dropping my spear and jumping onto the leg of the thing. It felt like high-grit sandpaper, and I climbed its leg high enough to get onto the back of the crab.
It didn’t attempt to buck me off or swing at me with its mangled claws. I pulled out my knife and neared the head, preparing to stab, when I stopped and realized the mistake we’d be making by killing it there.
Down below, Kara, Eliza, Emma, and Shaya were stabbing and fighting with the creature and winning.
One of its claw was nothing but a stump, and the other hung on by threads of muscles.
I whistled, and they looked up at me.
“Jack!” Eliza said.
“We can’t kill it here. Head toward the beach,” I yelled, pointed behind me.
“Okay,” Kara said, and they all started strafing the beast to the left.
I kneeled, hanging onto the thing as it pivoted, chasing the girls.
It stumbled after them, and that’s when I noticed they had destroyed one of its legs and mutilated another. The creature staggered past our house and through a few bushes, reaching the whites sands.
Touching the creature, I closed my eyes and told it that it needed to go back home. The small part, deep inside itself heard me. It was relieved that the nightmare of its existence was coming to an end. It crawled into the water, nearly dead. I ran off the back of the big crab, jumping down onto the sand below just as it left the beach.
The girls gathered next to me, and we watched as the crustacean disappeared into the water.
“Wow, that was crazy,” Emma said, holding her bat out with both hands. It dripped with crab juice. “Sherri was totally right about this place.”
Benji and Cass came down from the house, running over to us.
“Are they gone?” Benji asked.
“They’re not going to hurt us. Come on, Sherri needs us,” I said, running back over to Sherri.
Sherri sat on the raft with Carmen’s head resting on her lap.
“She’s still out,” Sherri said, looking sweaty and pale.
I felt the two in the water. They were just where I had left them. Screw this. I stomped into the water and grabbed one by the back of his neck and commanded it to get out of the water with me. He obeyed, walking into the shallows and then onto the beach. I shoved him the sands.
“Why did you do this?” I asked.
The fish-man shook his head.
“Who sent you?” I said, searing the question into his brain.
“I live for the king,” he said. “We just a start. More come. He will take you and all your women.” He laughed as blood spilled from his nose.
“When?” I asked.
“He knows all. You can’t hide this from him forever.” He slumped forward and died on the sand.
“Son of a bitch,” I said and rushed back to the water.
I grabbed the second and last one and dragged him to the beach. I didn’t speak and had him watch me draw a large circle on the sand.
“Can you girls grab me a few small rocks, please?” I asked as I smoothed out the sand with a long stick.
“Yeah, of course,” Benji said, and the rest rushed around the beach, grabbing stones and setting them next to me.
With the circle drawn and the sand smoothed, I began to set the rocks in the sand.
The fish-man watched me as I did all this, confused about what I was doing.
I pointed at the white rock with my stick.
“This is where we are right now. This island.” I pointed to the black rock. “This is the island, with the tar, the black stuff.” I pointed to the gray rock. “This is that island over there, with the food and birds on it. Do you understand?”
He nodded, and I knew he did.
“This is the island with the cave on it. The Anwok seal. You understand?”
His massive eyes went wider at the word Anwok, but he nodded his understanding.
“Good, now I want you to show me where the king is with this rock.” I tossed him a maroon rock.
It landed on the sand next to him, and he looked at it, terrified. I compelled him to answer the question, and he blinked a few times before picking up the rock and looking over my map in the sand.
“He is far away from here,” he said and winced in pain.
Holding the rock, he walked past my circle and I waved the girls off from spearing or shooting him. The circle I made was about eight feet around but the fish-man walked another ten feet and set the rock down. He pointed at it and nodded his head.
“How many islands in between?”
“Many,” he said, and blood trailed from his nose.
“Did anyone else know about this raid?” I asked.
“No, only us. No time.” He groaned in pain and put his hands over his head.
I compelled him to feel no pain, and he relaxed.
“Do you or anyone else have another, like her?” I poi
nted to Carmen as she still lay on Sherri’s lap. “Show me where she is on the map.”
Blood stained his chest, and his eyes started to glaze over. I compelled him to answer and he stumbled forward, dropping to his knees and then his hands, he crawled a couple feet, outstretched one hand and pointed to a spot on the sand. He tapped his finger twice on the spot and never moved again.
“There’s another girl,” Cass said, staring at the dead hand.
“Where’s Shaya?” I asked. I wanted her to see this and tell me if she knew what this island was.
“She’s with her brother,” Kara said.
Near the forest’s edge, Shaya held onto her brother, cradling his head and crying. Losing a brother and father in two days was more than I would wish on my worst enemy. I could ask her later about these stones.
“No one touches any of this,” I said, pointing at the map in the sand.
I grabbed a dark, gray rock and placed it under the dead watcher's finger. That marked another one of their sisters. That marked our next voyage.
Chapter 32
Shaya spoke in her native language as she held her bother in chest-deep water. His body was dressed with leaves and wrapped in roots and vines. She held him for several minutes, crying, and finally, she put her head on his chest and then swims with him out far enough that I had to squint to see her.
Thirty minutes had passed since I gave a much less ceremonial burial at sea to two watchers that were going to kill Sherri. The pushed over trees and trampled forest foliage were the lasting reminder of the giant crab that attacked us. Thankfully, our house had gone unharmed, and after half an hour, we had cleaned up the last of the crab parts and soiled sand and sent them back into the ocean.
After a few minutes, I started to wonder if Shaya was coming back. She hadn’t said much since her brother had died. Then her head popped up, and she swam back to the shoreline. We all watched her walked out of the sea, tears falling from those big eyes.
